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Attractions

A Special Improvement District is an organization committed to increasing business activity and property values within commercial/business areas. The SIDs are designated by the City of Elizabeth as official management corporations of the Elizabeth Avenue’s Special Improvement District and the Historic Midtown Elizabeth Special Improvement District. Their Board of Trustees are composed of several business owners and property owners, who meet monthly to plan for the improvement of the two centrally located business districts.

In 2004, the City of Elizabeth and the Greater Elizabeth Chamber of Commerce (GECC) embarked on a new marketing campaign and website (www.exit13a.com) to promote “Shop, Play & Stay at 13A”. The website contains access to exclusive offers at the many shopping, entertainment and hotel locations open at Elizabeth’s Exit 13A off the New Jersey Turnpike.

With its proximity to Newark Liberty International Airport, Elizabeth is home to New Jersey’s finest hotels and now with the addition of many new hotels, the City ranks second to only Atlantic City in total hotel rooms in New Jersey. All of these hotels are within a few minutes of great restaurants, IKEA and The Outlet Collection Jersey Gardens shopping district, with shuttle service to these locations.

Now it’s time to explore more of Elizabeth’s history and sample the diversity that makes this City so great. Wander up to Historic Midtown Elizabeth, where you can enjoy more than a dozen historical sites and markers, which recount the days leading up to the founding of the United States of America.

You can also stop and shop or have a quick bite in the Midtown Shopping district or explore the history in this area with a walking tour.

Elizabeth is the State of New Jersey’s largest Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ), a very important fact to shoppers. Participating stores are eligible to charge a sales tax rate that is half the normal sales tax throughout the rest of New Jersey. Another important sales tax fact is that in New Jersey there is no sales tax on clothes, making it understandable as to why Elizabeth has such a wealth of retail opportunity for shoppers.